Wally Eberhard: Westside needs more attention

Posted: Tuesday, August 18, 2009

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It's taken a winter storm to do it, but the Athens-Clarke County Commission has turned its attention to the Westside. Fire Station No. 2 on Atlanta Highway at Mitchell Bridge Road is to be rebuilt, using insurance money from damage inflicted during the Great Winter Storm of 2009.

That is good news. Other than a few street and sewer improvements, this is the first major project for the western end of the county since we moved to Commission District 6 from District 5 in 2001.

We hope that Westsiders will be given input into the design and location of the rebuilt station. The present site is hemmed in by two major arteries. There must be a better location. We deserve something as attractive and functional as fire stations built in recent years.

Superdistrict 10, encompassing a large swath of the Westside, has been ignored by the commission. If there is a plan for the civic future of the Westside, it has yet to surface. Perhaps the recently elected District 6 and Superdistrict 10 commissioners, Ed Robinson and Mike Hamby, will take a deep breath, forget downtown Athens and the Eastside for a moment and see what might be done. We have no parks, playgrounds, walking trails or ball fields. There is no community center. We know of no plans for a Middle Oconee Greenway or a branch library. Maybe they could push to have the sales-tax-funded tennis center built out this way.

A recent editorial in this newspaper would have you believe the music scene in Athens has "come to define this community ("Downtown doesn't need detailed master plan," Aug. 11)." We would respectfully disagree. A community is the sum of its many parts; Athens-Clarke County is no exception. The Westside is one important part, blessed with good neighborhoods, plenty of shopping and a variety of eateries. It's a reliable source of sales and property taxes. And, it is neglected by leaders who pay minimal attention to anything beyond the west end of Clayton Street.